The present invention relates to a photographing apparatus, and more particularly, to a photographing apparatus capable of illuminating an auto focus (AF) auxiliary light without regard to the opening/closing of a flash since the flash may disperse light to outside of a main body of a camera even when the flash is included in the main body of the camera.
Recently, digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) cameras that provide photographs of high image quality and generate digital images have been widely distributed. Here, of the DSLR cameras, a single-lens reflex camera is one in which an image of a subject is transferred to a viewfinder and light is transmitted to a photographing sensor through one lens. Compact digital cameras are twin lens reflex cameras which have been widely distributed. Therefore, an image shown to a user and an image that is actually captured are different from each other, and thus, the image transferred to a sensor may be displayed on a screen.
In conventional DSLR cameras, a mirror is formed on an optical axis of the lens to rotate within a predetermined angle range with respect to the optical axis. The light of an object, as obtained from the lens, is reflected by the mirror and focused on a focusing plate, and thus, the user may identify the image focused on the focusing plate using a pentaprism and a viewfinder. At this time, when a shutter-release signal is input, the mirror rotates within a predetermined range with respect to the optical axis and rises to escape from the optical axis of the lens. In addition, when the shutter is opened by a driving control of a shutter driving circuit, the image of the subject is formed on an imaging device.
The conventional DSLR cameras generally include a flash, which is equipment for lighting a photographing scene by generating an instant flash. The light emission of the flash is made for 1/1000 sec., and a color temperature at this time is generally about 5,500 K. The flash may be multifunctional, however, the flash is generally used to light the photographing scene when the light intensity is low.
Digital cameras mostly adopt an auto focus (AF) function, which automatically focuses the subject by measuring a distance to the subject. However, when there is no sufficient contrast on the subject in a dark scene, it is difficult to determine the position of the subject, and thus, the focusing cannot be performed. Therefore, in recent digital cameras, an AF auxiliary light is illuminated onto the subject in order to compensate for the lack of brightness.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional DSLR camera.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional DSLR camera 10 additionally includes an AF auxiliary light source 11. Therefore, when the environment surrounding a subject is dark, the AF auxiliary light source 11 illuminates light onto the subject to perform an AF operation.
However, in this case, since the additional AF auxiliary light source 11 is included to perform the AF operation, a structure of the camera becomes complex, the volume and weight of the camera increase, and fabrication costs of the camera also increase.
On the other hand, a flash 12 is opened to illuminate the AF auxiliary light onto the subject, and then, the AF operation may be performed.
However, the AF auxiliary light is only illuminated onto the subject only when the flash 12 is opened and the flash 12 emits light whenever photographing, and thus, the photographing may not be performed according to the user's intention. Moreover, the flash 12 is opened when the AF operation is performed and closed when the AF operation is not performed, and thus, the user may experience this inconvenience.